You may remember me saying that the kids in the computer class I was teaching graduated from my course and thus I had to get new students. Cynthia (the Xhosa facilitator) and I moved to a new school last week and began teaching our students computer basics and experimenting with the Paint programs.
This week however, our class was cancelled due to safety reasons. You see, our new class was at a school in a very very crime ridden area and bringing 9 lap tops into that kind of a community was just asking for trouble. Unfortunately, we will have to move our class yet again to a 3rd school, but this time to a much safer location. I guess it’s a good move in the long run, but I just want to have a group of kids for a set period of time and really be able to pour into them and teach them all I know without the fear of uprooting again. I believe an effective teacher is one who creates a relationship with the students and cultivating relationships takes time and effort. School ends in only a month and half so there isn’t much time left.
Since the computer class was cancelled for the week, I decided to help out with my favorite age group in our Foundations Phase class. Many of the students that come to the after school programs are supposed to be taking care of their younger siblings before their parents get home from work. Instead of staying home, we encourage the kids to bring their siblings and we provide a class for the little ones to participate in.
At John Pama Primary school, the Foundations Phase class has close to 60 kids under the age of 7 every single day. There is one teacher. ONE TEACHER FOR 60 SMALL CHILDREN! Somehow she manages to keep everything relatively in order and actually gets them to learn something while she’s at it. Even after the day is done, she has a smile on her face---she’s incredible.
This Tuesday I showed up to help out again and received a message that the teacher would be a bit late so I should just start off the class with some activities. Pulling from my Blue Frogs Sunday School teaching days, I decided that we should play Duck Duck Goose. Now, most of these kids don’t speak English so explaining the that the ‘it’ person was Goose proved to be quite the challenge and it actually turned out to be duck duck DUCK instead, but they got the idea and we laughed as we chased each other around the court yard.
To buy more time, we moved on to a second game, Red Light Green Light. The kids didn’t really understand this game either so it turned into a mish-mash of Red Light Green Light, Simon Says, and Follow the Leader. So there I was, stomping around the courtyard with a large group of small children mimicking whatever I did. I had them squawking like chickens, hopping like bunnies, strutting like Beyonce, and marching like soldiers. As soon as I spread my arms out and yelled, “Red light!” they all froze in their tracks and giggled like silly little kids.
Thinking that the teacher was soon to arrive, I took the kids into the classroom to sit at their desks (by this time I had about 45 kiddos, all under age 7 mind you). I had them sing the national anthem (what is it about little black children signing in a group?? I just melted!) and then tried to teach them Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes. Kids are great a mimicking so they picked it up quite quickly, but soon became bored with it…..and still no teacher…..
I went to check with the center coordinator to see if the Nosibulelo (the teacher) had an ETA. The response? “Oh she might not make it in time for class today.” Right…she’s not coming at all….I now have close to 60 3-7 year olds in a classroom and their energy is growing by the second….hmmmm….
As soon as I stepped back into the classroom, pandemonium had broken out amongst the children and I was clueless as to how to calm them down. Picture this: deafening noise levels of children running, crying, laughing, screaming, and fighting. One boy is in the corner chewing on a pair of sharp scissors. Two girls are crying because they only have 1 pencil and both want to write on the walls. 4 boys are chasing each other around the room on top of the desks. 2 other boys are trying to draw on a girl’s hair with chalk from the board. 1 boy has found a piece of cardboard in the trash bin and is now running around whipping people with it—a trail of crying children are left behind him. 3 girls are taking all of the books off the shelf and hiding them around the room. 1 boy has managed to climb up to the windows and is precariously positioned on the ledge. 3 more girls are playing house under the teacher’s desk and refuse to move…..And this is only what I can see!
By this point, I had no idea what to do---the kids didn’t speak English, nor did they bother to listen to what I had to say. They couldn’t understand anyways so what was the point? I was doing my best to not be frustrated when 2 of the learners from the HIV/AIDS Peer Education class came to my rescue. With 2 short phrases all of the children quieted down and sat in their desks. (Note to Self: LEARN THESE XHOSA PHRASES!!)
Still figety in their seats, we decided to have them tell stories (still a very common tradition in their culture). One small child would come to the front of the classroom and say a few lines and the rest of the class would repeat a refrain every so often. While I had no idea what they were saying (still all in Xhosa) the kids seemed to keep relatively quiet (relatively is used loosely here, maybe it was more relative to the busy train station than a classroom setting, but either way it was quieter than before).
After my day with the little ones, I have an immense respect for Nosibulelo and her patience and love for these children. It takes a very special person to keep their mind in all that madness and she does it with grace and a smile on her face. One thing’s for sure, she will have a special place in heaven for all her hard work! One other thing is for sure….I need to seriously work on my Xhosa J
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